Seventh Year and Beyond
by harprani
Summary: AU This begins at the very end of the marauder's 6th year. The main focus will be on Sirius and the marauders, but there will be other characters and OC's as well. Some parts will be canon and others completely different. Give it a try please! R
1. Prologue

Prologue

The room was dark and only the vague, shadowy outlines of four hangings and trunks could be made out. A dark haired boy, barely visible, tossed and turned in his sleep. An instant later a bloodcurdling scream pierced the air.

His companions slept on.


	2. Hogwarts Express

Hogwarts Express

James POV:

James Potter sat in a compartment aboard the Hogwarts Express; the same one he and his friends had been sitting in since their first year. Sixth year was over for him and now he was headed home for the holidays.

Across from him sat his best friend and partner in crime Sirius. Sirius was leaning up against the compartment wall, fast asleep. He came from prestigious pure-blood family, he was a Black. Among the oldest and most ancient pureblood families, Blacks believed deeply in blood-status, well except Sirius. Then again he had always been a rebel.

James too was a pure-blood, but unlike the Blacks, the Potters had always been more conventional, fighting for the rights of those that people like Sirius's family thought worthless. Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor though, and fought hard to distance himself from his family as much as he could.

These days it seemed that those pure-blood families were more worrisome than usual. Deatheaters, the followers of Lord Voldemort, a fanatic of the pureness of blood, were almost certainly coming from these old families. They were dangerous. Recently more and more reports of deaths due to this dark lord had been coming up and James knew people were worried. It didn't seem so relevant in Hogwarts, but he wondered what effect it would have now that they were out of school.

He glanced at Remus who was sitting next to Sirius, he and Peter Pettigrew were playing exploding snaps. Remus was a half-blood and although his muggle mother died years ago James still worried about his friend. In addition to that Remus had a bit of a furry problem, he was a werewolf. The other marauders knew of course, but people like Voldemort were not famous for tolerance, regardless that he was human barring once a month.

James was glad that Peter was a pureblood, at least he did not have to worry about him. Peter was always being attacked by bullying Slytherins, and though he was very kind he had never been a very skilled wizard. This made him a target, as well as his clumsy nature, and the fact that though his family was pure-blooded, they were quite poor.

Peter's motion to place another card on the growing card house caught James's attention, and he watched as Peter fumbled and dropped the card resulting in an explosion, blasting the card house to pieces. Remus laughed good-naturedly, but James hissed, "Quiet," nodding toward Sirius.

"Oops," Peter really looked guilty, he knew how hard Sirius found it to sleep. James didn't know what caused it, but as long as he'd known him Sirius never seemed to sleep well. So much so that Remus had once asked if he suffered from insomnia. Sirius had laughed it off, but at times James wondered. Normally Sirius didn't let it bother him in any case, but summer holidays were coming and it had gotten worse. It always did.

James knew why too, or at least had a guess that he very much suspected was true. Sirius always seemed a lot grouchier before any holiday, or any time before he was forced to go home. He snapped very easily and his friends knew better then to test him then. They had seen Sirius really loose it very few times, and James, for one, had no desire to repeat the experience. Sirius got angry easily, but seldom did he allow himself to get completely out of control.

Quietly, James sighed. What happened lately had been a far cry from normal. It seemed that mysterious occurrences were happening with more and more frequency in the outside world. Even in Hogwarts, which normally seemed impenetrable, horrifying rumors had been going around. On top of all that Sirius had been edgy and the relationship between the marauders was being tested to the limits.

As the years went on Sirius's temper became more frayed before going home, and his sleepless nights seemed to increase. James suspected that the tensions in the Black household were becoming more apparent with each year. Still, Sirius had never been this uptight about going home. He looked absolutely exhausted that morning, so much so that even Remus had seemed disturbed.

Remus and Sirius were the cause of the strain among the marauders. During the full moon before last Sirius had done the unforgivable, he had betrayed Remus to Snape. It had been a joke at the time, a prank gone wrong. Sirius had done it on impulse and hadn't thought it through. James knew that whatever else Sirius was guilty of disloyalty and vindictiveness weren't among them. That was the only reason that James had forgiven him. He suspected that Peter had done it simply to follow him, but then again he might be wrong.

Sirius and Remus's relationship was taking much longer to fix however, which James grudgingly understood. Remus was trying, they both were, he knew. But it wasn't the same, they were civil to each other, but didn't speak unless necessary and the same friendliness didn't seem to exist. Sirius really was trying to show Remus how sorry he was and apologized several times which was previously unheard of, but the frosty atmosphere refused to go away. It was probably a large part of why Sirius had spent so much time away from his friends lately.

The fact that Remus showed he was worried made James even more concerned. Nothing in the past couple weeks had shown any change between the two friends. Remus had always been the most perceptive of them all and for him to be so worried showed James that something was wrong more than anything else. James knew Sirius better than anyone else, but Remus had always been the more sensitive type, and if what James suspected was bothering him really was, Remus was better equipped to deal with it.

Remus had even opted to sit next to him, and James knew he was attempting to pick up more, guess what Sirius wasn't telling them. They both knew that if Sirius didn't want them to know they wouldn't find out, unless he was careless. However, in the state he was in now, James felt carelessness was a lot more probable then usual.

"Is he still asleep?" Peter squeaked, nodding towards Sirius. He seemed frightened, and it was understandable. Sirius hadn't been in the best of moods lately and in the past couple days he hadn't been very patient with his bumbling friend.

"Yeah," James answered. "Though I don't know how he managed it, he really must be exhausted."

"Hey Prongs," Remus nodded towards him, "You want to play?"

"Sure."

And they continued laughing and joking for the rest of the ride.

When the platform finally came into view Remus reached over, and shook Sirius gently, "Come on, we're here."

In response he moaned softly, his head lolling, and they exchanged alarmed glances. James was no expert but something didn't seem right to him. He tried, "Sirius? Sirius? PADFOOT!"

He started awake, eyes unnaturally wide and breath coming out in gasps.

"Are you okay?" Peter was staring at him, concern lacing his tone. If even Peter had managed to catch on something had to really be wrong. Out of the corner of his eye James caught Remus giving Sirius a searching look.

"I'm fine," he hesitated, "just…tired."

James broke the uneasy silence, forcing himself to sound light-hearted, "Well we'd better get our trunks if we're ever going to get off this train."

"Yeah." said Sirius heaving himself up and pulling down his trunk in one motion with an easy, elegant grace that James knew he would never have. He was smiling, but it looked forced. Remus was still looking at him with piercing eyes, but James knew that after all this the probability of finding out what was bugging their friend was practically non-existent.

"Right," Remus said, beginning to get up. Peter was looking around anxiously following his lead. "Come on Wormtail, like James said, if we don't get moving we will end up stuck on this train."

Today the frostiness had seemed to have disappeared, leaving behind awkwardness in its wake. James preferred this however, and hoped that it was a sign everything would be back to normal soon.

When they finally stepped out on to the platform after combing through the compartment numerous times James grinned. They only had one year left at Hogwarts! The fact was as exhilarating as it was terrifying and it made a shiver go down James's spine. In a year's time they would be adults, ready to face the real world.

"I see your dad, James."

"Where?" he questioned Peter, craning his neck, trying to spot a familiar face. Platform 9 and ¾ was packed with smiling families and students, as well as many people hugging and exchanging tearful goodbyes. Finally James caught sight of his father, who at 6'2'' was hard to miss, and right behind him was his mum.

They were both grinning as they headed over to him and his friends. His father ruffled her hair while his mum hugged him.

"How was Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Fun, like usual."

"You know you're supposed to be learning not playing all those pranks and getting in those detentions that we keep hearing about." Her voice was a tone of mock sternness, but the corners of her mouth were twitching.

"Well you know me," he said without a hint of shame, "always striving to make other's lives more interesting."

Behind him he heard his father talking to Sirius, Remus, and Peter in turn, and still smiling he turned towards them.

"Are you boys coming over this summer?" his mother asked, "You know you're welcome, I must keep James entertained somehow after all."

Remus smiled, "I'll have to see, I'll send James an owl soon Mrs. Potter."

"You'd better." She waggled a finger at him. "What about the rest of you, Sirius?"

His face darkened and when he finally spoke his voice was guarded, "As much as I'd like to we're having some…esteemed guests over this summer so I'll have to say no. Thank you for the offer though. In fact, I would best be going." he glanced toward where his mother and Regulus, his brother, were standing, both watching him with narrowed eyes. James hadn't seen them earlier.

Then Sirius turned and without another word strode toward where his mother and brother were standing, leaving them to watch him gaping with bewildered eyes. He sounded so _formal_; James had never thought about it but realized that Sirius had probably been trained in etiquette from a young age. The very thought was alien.

However before he reached his family a slender figure pulled him aside. It was a girl obviously, but in spite of the bright sunlight the only defining feature James could make out was her dark chocolate colored hair, which was heavily layered and reached to her waist. She was angled away from him, and was whispering something into Sirius's ear. To do so she was standing on her tip-toes, and had wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him towards her. She was a good foot shorter than him, Sirius cleared six feet easily.

Whatever she said seemed to cheer Sirius up a little, because he smiled for the first time that day and nodded, before bending down to kiss her quickly. He then pulled away gently and turned to continue walking. James didn't bother watching him though, he was to busy staring at the mysterious girl. She seemed to slump when he left and then she turned in the opposite direction, and vanished into the crowd.

"The only word for that was strange," Remus whispered, so that only Peter and James could hear and they both nodded in fevered agreement. Sirius was a bit of a player, they all knew that, his good looks had got him attention from numerous girls in the past. But he wasn't a heartbreaker, all the girls he went out with were as serious about a relationship as he was and they flaunted it. It was a unknown concept for him not to brag about a girl that he was dating, and girls always seemed to do the same.

So the fact that Sirius was dating someone, and he obviously was, without the marauders knowing was very strange. Stranger still was the fact that they both seemed to really care about each other. Something about their exchange had been intimate, it was obvious that they were close, and really knew each other. Very few people managed to make their way into the circle of people Sirius would do anything for.

"Peter," James's mum continued as if nothing had happened, "I know you're spending this summer in America, have a wonderful trip."

"Thanks," he said nervously, "I'd better go, my mum will be getting worried." James rolled his eyes, that was the understatement of the century. Peter's mum was always worrying. James stole a glance at his own mum, she acted as though nothing had happened but James had recognized her _we're going to talk about this later young man!_ look.

"See ya Wormtail." he and Remus chorused as Peter too disappeared into the crowd.

"Well I'd better go as well," Remus said, "I've gotta find my dad and then we're heading home. I'm assuming that you're doing the same thing." James nodded absently and Remus turned.

"Wait, Moony, don't forget to owl."

"I never do," he said with a smile, "I'll see you later Prongs." And in a moment he, too, was gone.

"Are you ready to go home?" Henry Potter was still grinning.

"Yup," James was still wondering about the mystery that shrouded his friend and whether the marauders would ever be the same again, but now going home seemed like the best idea he'd heard all day.


End file.
